The Wake Forest University School of Medicine is part of Wake Forest University, and in conjunction with North Carolina Baptist Hospital, forms a Medical Center, which is a regional referral center for an area of nearly five million people. The Medical Center trains students in medicine as well as in allied health fields including physician assistants, medical technologists and nurse anesthetists. The Medical Center offers training programs for house officers in 23 specialties, each of which is approved by the Council of Medical Education in Hospitals of the American Medical Association and their respective specialty boards. The Medical School also has basic science programs with graduate training in Biochemistry, Cancer Biology, Comparative Medicine, Neurobiology/Anatomy and Physiology/Pharmacology. Wake Forest University has very large and distinguished Department of Public Health Sciences which offers graduate training in Epidemiology. The Medical Center is well known for its outstanding clinical training but also has placed additional emphasis on continuing achievements in medical research.

Cardiology Fellowship Program

The Cardiovascular Diseases Training Program at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC has been an accredited Cardiovascular Diseases Training Program for the past 40 years. There are currently 12 General Cardiology Fellows, 2 Combined Program Fellows, 3 Interventional Fellows, and 1 Electrophysiology Fellow in the program. The training program is integrated within the Department of Internal Medicine. The Cardiovascular Diseases Training Program director is Dr. Robert J. Applegate, who has served in this position since 1993. The Chief of the Section of Cardiology is Dr. William C. Little. The faculty involved in the Cardiovascular Diseases Training Program includes 22 full-time faculty and four emeriti subspecialty faculty. The section has a large clinical volume and an extremely productive research program. Five faculty members are principal investigators for NIH grants, holding nine NIH grants as of the beginning of this academic year.

We have active basic and clinical research programs. NIH-funded studies of left ventricular pump function, sarcomere dynamics of normal and failing muscle, and the molecular biology of thrombosis and restenosis are being carried out in our basic laboratories. Clinical projects currently underway include studies of the mechanism and prevention of restenosis following PTCA, the pathogenesis of MI, pharmacologic regression of atherosclerosis assessed by quantitative coronary angiography, 3-dimensional echocardiography, MRI myocardial and coronary imaging, the pathophysiology of aging on LV function, intra-coronary ultrasound, cardiac rehabilitation, radio-frequency ablation techniques, and pharmacologic trials for CHF.

Fellowship Training Options

The section on Cardiology offers several fellowship opportunities including a 3 year clinical general cardiology training program and a 4 year combined clinical general cardiology and research training program. We also offer 1 year additional training for subspecialization in Interventional Cardiology, and Electrophysiology. We will accept fellows each year. Our three-year program is designed to provide fellows with balanced training in both clinical and investigative cardiology. We provide fellows with strong training in all aspects of clinical cardiology including invasive and interventional cardiology, non-invasive cardiology, heart failure and cardiac transplant, electrophysiology, cardiac rehabilitation and preventive cardiology. As part of the training program, all fellows are also expected to complete a research project with a faculty mentor.

The program content is provided within a three-year fellowship. One-month rotations in either a clinical setting, or working with a faculty mentor on a research project comprise the blocks of the training program. During these clinical rotations the Fellows develop the requisite procedural and consultative skills to satisfy the requirements of subspecialty training in cardiovascular diseases. A key feature of the training program is one to one faculty to fellow relationship throughout the training in both procedural and consultative activities. Experience with longitudinal patient care is provided in a hospital setting on the General Cardiology Consult Service, the Arrhythmias Consult Service, the Fellows Service and the Coronary Care Unit rotation. Continuity experience in an Outpatient setting is achieved through a weekly half-day Outpatient Clinic in the Department of Clinics.

The knowledge base necessary for successful completion of the Cardiovascular Diseases Training Program is provided through a series of didactic lectures, and conferences including Clinical Cardiology Conference, an Interventional Conference, a Research Conference providing both basic and clinical research, a Non-Invasive Conference, and a Nuclear Cardiology Conference.

The training program is located entirely within one location, at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, Winston-Salem, NC. As a quartenary referral center with a growing primary care base, this medical center is equipped with state of the art cardiac catheterization laboratories, non-invasive laboratory including exercise treadmill, surface and transesophageal echocardiography, nuclear radiology, and electrophysiology laboratories. Active programs in Cardiac Surgery, Vascular Surgery, Interventional Radiology and Pediatric Cardiology exist within the Medical Center. The Wake Forest University School of Medicine of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center complex has completed a 180 million-dollar expansion program, which gives us a total of 806 licensed hospital beds.

We have an active clinical service reflected by the fact that we perform over 2,489 heart catheterizations, 1,545 coronary percutaneous revascularization procedures, 17,185 echocardiograms, 681 electrophysiology studies (including radio-frequency ablations), 715 pacemakers and ICDs and 750 open-heart surgical procedures yearly.

Clinical Cardiology/Clinical Cardiovascular Research Training Program

The rapid development of new and more precise techniques to examine features of human biology has produced tremendous opportunities for progress in cardiovascular research. Unfortunately, at the same time, there has been a continuing decline in the number of physicians choosing a career in biomedical research. As a result, the need for well equipped clinical investigators is greater than ever. Among research disciplines, advances in genetics, genomics and proteomics have produced particularly powerful new tools to use in clinical and epidemiologic investigation of the etiology, treatment, and prevention of cardiovascular disease.

The Clinical Cardiology/Clinical Cardiovascular Research Program was established in 2004 under the direction of Dr. David Herrington. Key features of the program include a clinical cardiology fellowship coupled with completion of a Masters Degree in Health Services Research with a curriculum that includes formal training in molecular biology and genetics, supplemental training in genomics, proteomics and informatics, a hands-on basic laboratory practicum and joint mentorship with both clinical and basic science faculty, and participation in external NHLBI sponsored short courses in cardiovascular epidemiology, and the genetics of complex heart, lung, and blood disorders.

Our goal is to attract and train a cohort of outstanding physician scientists who will be fluent in the latest developments in genetics, genomics and proteomics and able to apply this knowledge to the conduct of new cardiovascular epidemiology and clinical cardiovascular research.

Tuition and stipend funding is available through an NIH training program for post-doctoral trainees who are US citizens or permanent residents.

Curriculum:

We recruit two new MD investigators per year into the program. The educational requirements for the trainees in the program include:

* Completion of the requirements for a Masters of Science Degree in Health Services Research including course work, written exams, thesis and oral examination.

* 1st yr fellows attend the AHA's 10 day Seminar on the Epidemiology and Prevention of Cardiovascular

* 2nd yr fellows attend the Jackson Laboratory's Annual Short Course on Genetic Approaches to Complex Heart, Lung, and Blood Diseases.

* Each year fellows attend the AHA's Annual Conference on Cardiovasular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention in Association w/the Council on Nutrition, Physical Activity and Metabolism.

* Fellows regularly attend several epidemiology and research weekly conferences including a weekly conference with the program director.

* The formal course work required for the Masters Degree Program will be supplemented by additional activities designed to intensify and focus on the genetic and molecular epidemiology of cardiovascular medicine, and includes courses in ethics and the conduct of responsible research.

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This article is reposted with thanks to Wake Forest University School of Medicine.